Chapter 40
Tori
Engaged. The word sent butterflies scurrying through my belly, but a sense of tainted déjà vu sat over the moment.
As if he were experiencing the same sensation, Gabe’s smile faltered.
This was the moment that defined us, that had led to our undoing, but I wouldn’t let that happen again, and I knew he wouldn’t.
He just needed to trust that I trusted him.
I turned my head into his palm and kissed it. “We left the past behind us,” I said. “That’s where it needs to stay. We will make it down the aisle this time. I will be your wife, and you will be my husband.”
He rested his head on mine.
“Do you trust me, Gabe?”
“With my life.”
I smiled at the power of that statement. “Then believe me when I say that wedding dress is getting worn this time.”
He chuckled, and I shifted my face, sending my mouth crashing into his.
“Are you forgetting something?” I asked through our kisses.
“It’s a little cold out here to make love to you.”
My laugh caused our lips to part. Holding my hand out, I gestured to the ring on my finger.
“Oh that. Shoot, yes.”
He pulled the ring from my finger and opened his hand. Two rings sat in it, and I creased my brows, reaching out to touch them.
“Needed to improve on the original,” he said, wrapping the two bands around my ring so they formed a circle of diamonds around the one.
As he slipped them on my ring finger, nerves tingled along my spine.
Never had I imagined I would find him again, and we would be at this point.
I’d dreamed of finding him and telling him off when I stopped crying, but once Reid was born, the emotions cleared, and I couldn’t free myself of him.
Reid was a constant reminder of him, and the hollow space in my chest was another.
But never had I dreamed this moment would happen.
“Did she say yes?”
I looked up to see everyone looking out at us from the deck.
“They all knew?” I asked him.
He gave me a shrug, then cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, “Yes!”
A cheer rang out, and within moments, I saw a small bundle come running toward us. Reid ran to Gabe, who picked him up and spun him around just like he had me.
“We’re going to be a family,” he squealed, and Gabe laughed.
“We already were,” he said, nuzzling Reid’s nose.
Tears sprang, flowing too easily, and Reid reached for me. I took him from Gabe and gave him a big hug.
“Mommy and Daddy.” It still left me speechless how he called Gabe that so easily, as if he’d been saying it his entire life. The change had come after Gabe took him out for the day, and I had cried the first time I heard him say it.
“And Reid,” Gabe added.
He giggled. “And me.”
We walked back to the house. There were hugs and tears and threats from Cash before he patted Gabe on the back and pulled him into a hug.
Even Liv seemed unusually happy. I thought it might be the glasses of wine, but when she gave me an awkward hug, I suspected it wasn’t.
She wasn’t much for showing affection, I’d been around her enough to see that, so I took that hug and catalogued it with the image of Reid sitting between her and Gabe while we watched the movie.
I exchanged looks with Gabe every time Reid called her Auntie Liv, and her lips twitched while she tried to maintain her scowl.
The sound of Reid bursting into our room had my eyes flying open and Gabe tugging the sheets up over us.
My parents had let us share a room this time, and Gabe had taken full advantage of that hospitality by making me into putty as he repeatedly brought rapture to my body.
Celebrating, he had called it, but whatever it was, I wasn’t so sure the exhaustion that followed would make for a functional Christmas morning.
As Reid jumped on the bed, and Gabe grumbled, I was certain he hadn’t expected the childlike wonder that came with Christmas morning nor the early morning hours that accompanied it.
“Why do you never have your clothes on for sleepovers?” Reid asked, jumping on the bed so that I had to sit up and grab him before he went toppling.
“Because this is a grown-up sleepover,” Gabe explained, wiping his eyes. He reached over and looked at his phone. “Why are you up so early?”
“Santa came!”
“Welcome to parenthood,” I told Gabe, giving him a kiss on the cheek and pulling the blanket around me so I could stand. “Did you wake Grandma and Grandpa?”
“Shelby is.”
“Why don’t you go wake your Auntie Liv while we get dressed?” Gabe said with a sly grin.
“Okay.” He scooted off the bed and ran out the door, leaving it wide open.
I walked over and closed it just as Gabe’s hand yanked my blanket from me. “There’s no time for that,” I scolded him.
“There’s always time for that. Besides, Liv sleeps like a rock. It’ll take him a while to get her up.”
“That’s not nice, sending our son in to wake her. She’s just warming up to this, and you’re tormenting her.”
“She deserves it. I have plenty of paybacks from when we were little.” He yanked me to him, and I heard Liv’s shriek from down the hall.
“I think you’re going to have to wait, Mr. Icinda. Santa came, and those kids will not wait for you to get your fill of me.” I maneuvered out of his hold and headed to the bathroom.
“Damn, I might have to rethink this holiday thing.”
He’d had fun the night before setting all the gifts under the tree and stuffing the stockings. It was almost like he was a kid, and seeing the joy in his eyes had made my heart even fuller.
Gabe came in while I was brushing my teeth. His hair was messy, and he looked incredibly adorable. It tempted me to make Reid wait an extra half hour to take advantage of Gabe, but there was no way I’d convince my son to wait for Christmas.
After we’d both dressed, me in my Christmas pajamas that Gabe promptly teased me for and him in a pair of sweatpants and a T-shirt that made me regret not stealing a few minutes because now he was just sexy as hell, we headed down the hall.
Reid and Shelby were eagerly waiting at the top of the stairs, both knowing the rules that they had to wait for the adults—not that I thought they hadn’t peeked at the tree while we were dressing.
Cash and Brandi were standing guard, keeping them from wandering, and the others were congregating as we joined them.
Liv gave Gabe a glare that had me relieved that he would have to deal with her wrath and not me.
“Why in God’s name are we up this early?” she grumbled.
“Because it’s Christmas morning, and this is what we do,” Brandi explained.
“Can we go down now?” my niece asked.
Cash stood aside, and she and Reid bolted. I took Gabe’s hand as we followed. “This makes it all worth it.”
Instead of watching the kids, I watched Gabe. It was his first Christmas with Reid, and emotions played on his face. Wonder, excitement, awe. This moment was one I would remember along with the other significant ones that were slowly healing the painful ones.
When wrapping paper sufficiently covered the floor, Gabe took my hand and pulled me into his side, kissing my head. I peered up at him and saw that his eyes had grown misty.
“Can we go play?” Reid asked, gathering a handful of presents while his cousin did the same.
“There’s one more present for you,” I said, looking at Gabe to make sure he was still okay with this.
“For me?” Reid asked, dropping back to the floor. The move sent his presents tumbling from his hand.
Gabe rose and went to our room, returning with the box his father had sent.
Neither of us had opened it. He placed it in front of Reid, and Liv shifted in her seat, her hands clenched.
This was a big step for them, and I knew she was just as uncomfortable as Gabe was.
Anxiety sent my nerves tumbling through my stomach like falling blocks.
“From Santa?” Reid asked, putting his hand on the box as my mother handed Gabe a pair of scissors.
“No,” Gabe said, and a collective tension ran through the room.
My parents hadn’t been happy about the gift either, my father taking on a protective stance regarding Gabe and even Liv when we’d told them.
As much as this had been my suggestion, however, it was Gabe’s decision, and I was proud of him for making it.
I would have backed him either way, but I knew there were too many raw wounds remaining in him.
As he cut the tape on the box, the image of him tear-soaked and vulnerable returned, and I found myself moving closer to Liv.
She had her hands bunched in her lap, and I reached over and placed mine on hers.
Gaze flying to me then to our hands, she tensed, and I thought she would pull away.
She was anything but touchy-feely. But she gave me a small smile and left it there, relaxing some.
Gabe removed a wrapped present from the box and pushed the empty box over to me.
He sat on the floor next to Reid, staring at the present for a moment, and the emotion I witnessed pass over his face had me tightening my grip on Liv’s hand.
She put her other hand over mine, encasing it between hers, and we both held our breath.
“We should let them have a moment,” my mother said, but Gabe shook his head.
“No, it’s okay.”
Reid looked between them before scooting closer to Gabe, whose focus remained on the present. He kneeled and put his hands on Gabe’s face, lifting it. The prick of tears burned my eyes.
“Are you okay, Daddy?”
Gabe sniffed and cleared his throat, rubbing his eye before taking Reid’s hand and kissing it. “I’m fine. This is from my father for you.”
Reid’s eyes grew large, and in a hushed voice he said, “Your daddy? The not nice one?”
Gabe chuckled, and Liv moved her hand from mine and cleared her throat. I leaned closer to her, knowing Gabe had Reid in this moment, but Liv needed someone, too.
“Yes, he’s your other grandfather, and he’s trying to be nice. I guess.”